- In the beginning, there was only one. A single black infinitude... so cold and dark for so very long... that even the burning light was imperceptible. But the light grew and the infinitude shuddered... and the darkness finally... screamed, as much in pain as in relief. For in that instant a multiverse was born. A multiverse of worlds vibrating and replicating... and a multiverse that should have been one, became many.
The Multiverse is a collection of several different types of parallel dimensions and realities in existence.
Since the very first beginning, due to its constant cycle of death and rebirth, many iterations of the Multiverse have followed one another: in the latest cosmic upheavel, all of them were eventually merged, along with other versions of the DC Multiverse and other DC-related Multiverses, like the Wildstorm Multiverse, into a little-scaled omniverse known as Infinite Frontier which actually represents the "Space" side of the abstraction known as Divine Continuum. For a full list of worlds from each iteration, see Multiverse/List of Universes.
It's part of the Greater Omniverse which is filled with other Multiverses, sharing the omniversal void with the Marvel Multiverse and countless others.[66]
History
- Perpetua's Multiverse was the original form of the multiverse but it was twisted by its creator, Perpetua, into a dangerous self-sustaining weapon. It was reformatted into the Original Pre-Crisis Multiverse by energies of the Source with Perpetua sealed behind the Source Wall.
- The Original (Pre-Crisis) Multiverse was created as a result of Krona's interference in the Big Bang. This multiverse consisted of an infinite number of universes, but was destroyed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, resulting in the creation of a single New Earth. Unfortunately, the New Earth universe was unstable.[1]
- The Zero Hour/Hypertime Multiverse is a concept in which multiple earths can exist instead of branching timelines separate from other Earths. It was later revealed that these were part of Hypertime, the collection of all the different timelines, with diverging branches that occasionally merge back into the original, and Possible Futures. The Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium listed these timelines, alongside the Pre-Crisis Earths, as part of a larger "Multiverse".
- The Interregnum Multiverse was created by Alexander Luthor during Infinite Crisis. Many members of this incarnation of this Multiverse resembled Pre-Crisis Earths. Inherently unstable because it had been formed out of Hypertime,[1] it collapsed, restructuring New Earth's history.
- The university would later split into a 'local multiverse' of 52 identical copies via Hypertime.[1] The actions of Mister Mind resulted in these realities being becoming entirely different from the primary reality resulting in a new 'local' 52 Multiverse.[2][3]
Many of these worlds resembled Pre-Crisis and Elseworlds universes such as Kingdom Come, Superman: Red Son and The Dark Knight Returns. - In the epilogue of the Flashpoint storyline, New Earth Flash/Barry Allen attempted to restore the timeline: however, Pandora interfered in the process, merging three separate realities into a new universe, Prime Earth, which Dr. Manhattan further altered by removing 10 years from it. All these manipulations also in new 52 worlds undergoing changes of varying degrees, creating the Post-Flashpoint Multiverse.
- At the end of the Convergence, Futures End Brainiac sent the displaced New Earth Superman, Earth-One Supergirl, Pre-Crisis Flash/Barry Allen and New Earth Parallax/Hal Jordan back to prevent the destruction of the Pre-Crisis Multiverse during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. They succeeded, resulting in the creation of the original Multiverse, albeit in an evolved state. As a consequence of these major time changes, John King stated that "Post-Convergence, every character that ever existed, in official DC Canon, is now available to us as storytelling."[4], implying that at least four multiverses, along with Hypertime, were now existing at the same time: the defunct original Pre-Crisis Multiverse, the 52/Pre-Flashpoint Multiverse, the New 52/Post-Flashpoint Multiverse and the evolved Pre-Crisis Multiverse.
- In the aftermath of Wonder Woman's unknotting of the timeline and the destruction of all the Creation, The Hands of the Greater Omniverse rebooted the Multiverse. The residents of the Multiverse now remember every past event, new worlds were born, and the Multiverse itself, along with all of its past iterations and other unknown Multiverses, became part of an omniverse which was referred to as the Infinite Frontier.
- At the climax of the Dark Crisis, Pariah's restored Pre-Crisis realities were merged into the Post-Flashpoint Multiverse, leading to the birth of entirely new universes, similar to their Pre-Crisis iterations.
- It should be mentioned that the live action shows and cartoons also had multiverses. The names given to the Earths of those Multiverses are separate and don't line up with the comic versions.
Perpetua's Multiverse
The DC Multiverse was originally created 20 billion years ago when Perpetua, one of the so-called Hands of the greater Omniverse, was tasked by the Source to create a new realm of existence. The Sixth Dimension was the first dimension to be created and became the "control room" of the Multiverse, its highest plane of existence.
Then, Perpetua shaped the rest of the Multiverse, imbuing it with seven forces entrusted to her by the Source, dividing the creation in three parts, each one made out by three distinct forms of matter: the positive matter was used to create the Orrery of Worlds, the antimatter shaped a negative universe, and the dark matter formed a realm rich with potential. She also gave birth to three higher beings to monitor these realms: Mar Novu, who their mother also referred to as the Monitor, was assigned to the World Orrery; Mobius, also called the Anti-Monitor, had to guard the boundaries of creation, living in the negative world that became later known as the Antimatter Universe; Alpheus became the World Forger and was tasked to live in the dark and work to create new realities for the Orrery in what came to be known as the World Forge.
After she finished creating the Multiverse, she had theoretically fulfilled her role as a Hand and, according to the rules of the Source, she had to die or return to the Omniverse to create a new Multiverse as Mar Novu also made her notice; however, Perpetua had other plans in mind for her beloved creation.
At some point in time after his arrival into the dark, the World Forger created a "pet", who was named Barbatos, to destroy the worlds that were not supposed to be part of the Orrery.
5 billion years later, the Monitor and the World Forger discovered that their mother Perpetua was hiding into the Prime Universe, which was the first iteration of what became later known as Earth 0, where she had given birth to a race of fierce and ruthless beings, the Apex Predators who were the result of a combination between the inhabitants of the planet Earth and the green beings of the nearby planet, Mars.
When the Monitor confronted her and accused her of planning to use her army to invade and conquer other multiverses, shifting the balance of her creation from harmony to doom in contrast to the Source's rules, the Mother of the Multiverse forced him to run away.
200,000 years later, the three highest beings of the Multiverse gathered in the Promethean Galaxy at the far edge of the Multiverse where they built a Multiversal Tuning Fork to contact the Judges of the Source in order to let them know about Perpetua's evil intentions. However, Perpetua arrived there, along with her Apex Predators army, to murder her treacherous children, but the clash was stopped by the Cosmic Raptor, an enforcer of the Source that punished Perpetua for twisting the Multiverse's scale of judgment, sealing her and the Totality of her power into the Source Wall, made up by her Apex Predators who became the "legendary" Promethean Giants: the Rapor told her that she would have been sealed there until, at the End of Time, the final judgment would destroy her and the Multiverse.
In the wake of Perpetua's defeat, as the Multiverse was reshaped to be in its original Pre-Crisis state, the World Forger returned in the dark realm while Mobius also accused his brother Mar Novu of having made him and his universe useless, as it was not anymore the boundary between the Multiverse and the Omniverse. Despite the Monitor's replies, the Anti-Monitor promised him to eventually annihilate his Orrery of Worlds, setting in motion the chain of events that led to the first Crisis.[5]
Some time after the sealing of Perpetua, Barbatos rebelled against the World Forger, murdered him and took charge of the dark realm which he now referred to as the Dark Multiverse, where fallen worlds, made up by fears and hopes of the beings from the positive Multiverse, were now allowed to exist.[6]
A number of beings seemingly existed in a 'previous' universe, such as Imperiex, Relic, and some iterations of Trigon. It is unclear whether or not these beings originate from Perpetua's multiverse.
The Original Multiverse
Main article: Pre-Crisis
In the Beginning
Krona was a member of the ancient race of powerful, blue-skinned immortals from the planet Maltus. The Maltusians would later relocate to Oa and style themselves the Guardians of the Universe. He was obsessed with observing the creation of the universe, despite an Oan legend that said attempting to uncover the secret would cause a great calamity. Krona created a machine that allowed him to witness the dawn of time. However, his machine interfered in the process, with terrible consequences—instead of a single universe, infinite universes were born in that moment.
Flash of Two Worlds
From the perspective of the Earth-One Universe, the first transuniversal journey occurred when The Flash (Barry Allen) accidentally changed his vibrational frequency to match that of Earth-Two, where he met Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash and his childhood comic book hero. That meeting resulted in years of interaction between the original super-hero team, the Justice Society of America, and their younger Earth-One counterparts, the Justice League of America.
Despite the Earth-Two Wonder Woman having encountered an alternate Earth years ago, Barry Allen is given the honor of naming the two Earths—his universe's Earth was called Earth-One, Jay Garrick's became Earth-Two. As noted years later by the elder Superman, the JSA were too polite to mention that they were around first.[7]
As Allen explained to Garrick in their first meeting:
- ..I vibrated so fast—I tore a gap in the vibratory shields separating our worlds! As you know—two objects can occupy the same space and time—if they vibrate at different speeds!
My theory is, both Earths were created at the same time in two quite similar universes! They vibrate differently—which keeps them apart! Life, customs—even languages—evolved on your earth almost exactly as they did on my Earth! Destiny must have decreed there'd be a Flash—on each Earth!- —[8]
Crime Syndicate
After Earth-Two, the next parallel world encountered by the JLA was that of Earth-Three, a partially "reversed" Earth populated by their evil "opposites", the Crime Syndicate of America. However the general populace of Earth-Three reflected a society based on laws and good values, despite the majority of their super powered beings having evil natures. The Syndicate would eventually be imprisoned by the JLA and JSA, escaping at various times throughout the years to cause trouble.
Over the years, various other Earths were visited by super-heroes (and villains).
Passage of Time
The JSA and JLA would get together once a year when the temporal matrices of the two universes were at their closest point, using a dimensional transporter.[9]
As Batman once explained about the differences between Earth-One and Earth-Two:
Green Arrow added:
- The idea is that Earth-Two is about twenty years behind because of some time flux.
- —[9]
The End of All Things
Main article: Crisis on Infinite Earths
Main article: Post-Crisis
When Krona accidentally created the Multiverse, an Antimatter Universe was formed at the same time. The Anti-Monitor caused a wave of antimatter to sweep across the Multiverse, in an effort to gain absolute power and remake existence to his liking. He was opposed by his opposite, the Monitor.
The Monitor's plans did not fully succeed in conquering the Anti-Monitor, ultimately costing the Monitor his life. In the end, only five universes remained. The heroes, at the Spectre's urging, pooled their resources and traveled back to the Dawn of Time where they confronted the Anti-Monitor. The villains, meanwhile (1,000,000,000 years later), traveled to Oa to try to stop Krona from peering back in time and creating the Multiverse (and, by extension, the Antimatter Universe the Anti-Monitor came from).
The Anti-Monitor revealed to the assembled heroes that he lured them to him to absorb their life forces. He explained:
- Only here, before creation can the future be changed! When Krona taps the cosmic forces, opening the door between matter and antimatter ... it shall be my hand he sees! My hand which shall destroy the positive matter multiverse for now and forever! My hand which shall make the antimatter universe supreme! ... The Multiverse will no longer exist!
- —[10]
The Spectre, however, aided by the mightiest sorcerers of five Earths, managed to defeat him.
Because of this battle at the dawn of time, the Multiverse was erased from existence. When Krona peered through the cosmic veil, he witnessed the birth of a single reality:
- In the beginning there were many. A Multiversal infinitude...so cold and so dark for so very long...that even the burning light was imperceptible. But then the light grew, and the Multiverse shuddered...and the darkness screamed as much in pain as in relief. For in that instant a Universe was born. A Universe with mighty worlds orbiting burning suns. A Universe reborn at the Dawn of Time. What had been many became one.[11]
As explained later by Harbinger, the new reality contained only a single universe, with one Earth, and a single history.[11]
From a functional perspective, the histories of Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-Four, Earth-S and Earth-X were effectively merged together, forming a single universe with elements of each, the Post-Crisis Earth. Earth-One became the template for this new Earth, onto which elements of the remaining four were added.
In theory, stories like Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 3) #18, All-Star Squadron #60 and The Legend of Wonder Woman #4 provided reasons for any differences between the merged Earth seen in Crisis #11 and a handful of other books and DC's formal Post-Crisis DCU.
Decades later, this iteration of the Multiverse, now known as Multiverse-2, was existing in some and was ultimately destroyed by the extra-dimensional being known as the Empty Hand. A few years after th Empty Hand left this universe for a newer version of the Multiverse, the "corpse" of this Multiverse was conquered by Pariah.
Zero Hour and Hypertime
Main article: Zero Hour
Main article: Hypertime
After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, it quickly became clear that Harbinger's claim that only a single Earth and history existed was untrue.
The Legion of Super-Heroes continued as if the Crisis never happened. This discrepancy was discovered by Cosmic Boy and it was explained that the past the Legion thought they knew was in reality a Pocket Universe created by the Time Trapper. However, this still left some discrepancies, notably the existence of Mon-El, and the Legion's numerous visits to the 20th century.
Armageddon 2001 raised more questions, as since post-Crisis Barry Allen had still faced Professor Zoom from the 25th century and Abra Kadabra from the 64th century the timeline of the DC universe should have been "set" well past 2001, but there were still alternate timelines to that year which per Harbinger's claim shouldn't have existed.
Soon afterwards, Coast City was devastated by Cyborg Superman and Mongul. Hal Jordan was driven mad with grief, driven over the edge by the callous behavior of the Guardians of the Universe, he destroyed both the Guardians, and the Green Lantern Corps. After absorbing their powers, he took on a new identity. Calling himself Parallax, Hal would later use his newfound powers to tighten the loop of time that Krona had created in the Post-Crisis history[12] to collapse reality, and rewrite it from the Big Bang forwards.
This temporal collapse caused various alternate timelines to temporarily merge with the main reality, again raising the question of whether the first Crisis had indeed wiped out all alternate realities, or whether some remained.
At the end of Zero Hour, Waverider claimed that all alternate timelines had been retroactively erased. However, Armageddon 2001 still occurred in this new timeline, which would require the continued existence of alternate realities. Furthermore, Matrix (Pocket Universe) still existed after Zero Hour, despite having originated in an artificial timeline.
Eventually it would be revealed these alternate timelines were part of Hypertime, as the Superboy who had briefly appeared in the main timeline during Zero Hour still remembered meeting the mainline Superboy.[13] It would also be revealed there were Hypertime versions of Earth Three and Earth-S.[14][15][16]
Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium lists both Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis Earths (such as the Pocket Universe) together. Some of these realities appeared in the Hypertime montage at the end of The Kingdom effectively weaving the Pre-Crisis and Hypertime multiverses together.
JLA: Syndicate Rules established that the Antimatter universe rebooted as the results of Krona's actions (heavily hinting at the events of JLA/Avengers as the cause)[citation needed] and that New Earth "is settling into new and different patterns" due to a cosmos-wide change.
Vertigo
Despite the Orrery of Worlds didn't exist anymore in the aftermath of the Crisis, the Vertigo Universe was shown to exist alongside New Earth with the two realities having experienced almost the same events.
The existence of the young magician, Tim Hunter, who was actually the embodiment of ancient power known as The Myrddin and as, a consequence, the Opener, a being capable of creating new universes with its sole thoughts and dreams, led to the birth of the so-called "Thousand Worlds of Tim Hunter", alternate versions of the Vertigo Universe.
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The Far Realms
A great number of magical realms and alternate planes of existence, where the inhabitants of New Earth and Vertigo Universe often journeyed into, was revealed to exist out in the still-existing Multiverse. These dimensions were collectively referred to as the Far Realms.
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Unraveling of Worlds
Infinite Crisis and the Interregnum Multiverse
Main article: Infinite Crisis
Many years later, survivors of the first Crisis, consisting of Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three, Superboy of Earth-Prime, and Superman & Lois Lane of Earth-Two, set out to remake the original Multiverse and create "the perfect Earth", after witnessing atrocities and catastrophes that had befallen the heroes of New Earth.
They intended to fabricate a machine that would recreate the multiverse and allow them to fuse and combine Earths until the perfect reality was created. A chain of events was set into motion, including the takeover of Batman's Brother Eye satellite, the unification of Earth's villains under the Secret Society of Super-Villains, the manipulation of the Spectre and the movement of planets to spark war and unrest. The magic destroyed and recreated by the Spectre would serve as fuel for the machine, Brother Eye would give the machine programming and directive, the villains united under the Society would gather those people who still contained the genetic code of Pre-Crisis realities (i.e. those who had existed in Pre-Crisis realities prior to the original Crisis), and the wars throughout the universe would shift the center of the universe away from Oa to where Earth-Two's center was, allowing the tower to open an access point. Though their efforts failed, the consequences of their actions fundamentally altered New Earth, and gave birth to 51 additional identical universes, which were later altered by the malevolent Mister Mind to become entirely separate realities.
Luthor's plan to use the Multiversal essences of natives of the original Universes to recreate Earth-Two also required:
- ...the rest of the Multiverse back as well. I need thousands and thousands of worlds. Worlds I can sift through like sand, one grain at a time, combining and mixing until I find it. Until I find the perfect Earth.
- —[17]
Luthor further noted that:
- The Superman of Earth-Two is the key to the return of the rest of the Multiverse. For some reason I can't explain or understand, and probably never will...everything comes from Superman.
- —[17]
After activating his device and the program "Earth: Spawn", a multitude of Earths (and their respective universes) appeared. The elder Superman, Kal-L, explained to his younger counterpart that:
- ...your Earth [New Earth] has been splintered back into a multiverse made up of thousands of worlds. But the Multiverse is unstable. The Earths will become weaker and weaker as they're divided. And if they aren't brought back together soon, the entire universe will explode in a new Big Bang. Everything will be destroyed. We need to get back to Earth-One.
- —[18]
That proved a difficult task, as the sky was filled with visions of multiple Earths, some mirroring Pre-Crisis Earths, others representing visions of past and future timelines, some known, some unknown. This unstable collection of realities collapsed back into a single New Earth after the Infinite Crisis.
52
Main article: 52
Main article: Monitors
In the Beginning
After the events of Infinite Crisis, the remaining Earths created by Alexander Luthor collapsed back together, combining elements to form one New Earth. However, the single universe was too small to contain the energy inside it and via Hypertime it began replicating—into 52 identical Universes: a new version of the Multiverse.
As Rip Hunter revealed to Booster Gold aboard his Time Sphere, in the few seconds after the creation of this new Multiverse, the Earths (and their corresponding Universes) "will occupy the same space, each on a different vibrational plane".[19]
During their efforts to stop the vastly powerful Mr. Mind from destroying every universe, Hunter described Mind's efforts as "eating years and events from this universe's history—altering the Earth with every flap of his wings". This resulted in the Earths changing, becoming different from New Earth in varying degrees.
Hunter further states that "the notion that there's a Multiverse beyond the reality we know—that's too dangerous a secret to spread." Hunter, however, had let that very thing slip in front of Doctor Sivana.
Hunter also revealed that there is a coming Megaverse. How this related to Hypertime and the formation of the New 52 multiverse is unknown.
The parallel dimensions were separated by an inter-dimensional sub-reality barrier called The Bleed. The Bleed was also spatially connected with the Source Wall, the Multiversal Nexus and the Nanoverse. The Bleed was completely collapsed in the Final Crisis event by Nix Uotan.
The Source Wall and the Anti-Life Equation exist between each matter universe. Knowledge and control of the Anti-Life Equation, the Speed Force, and quantum mechanics are needed to travel between universes.[20] Some have learned to travel the universes between the dimensions without knowledge of the Anti-Life Equation, such as Professor Michael Holt of Earth-2, though on a limited basis.
The Multiversal Nexus is the reality in between known parallel matter based universes. The Nexus was formerly occupied by the Monitors. From here, they observed and analyzed variances within the Multiverse; specifically citing instances wherein individuals migrated from one reality to another.
According to the Guardians of the Universe:
- ... upon Earth now rest 51 more parallel Earths—and beyond this universe, 51 parallel universes ... if Earth is ever annihilated, it will start a chain reaction that will destroy the others. The Multiverse will collapse, leaving only our opposite antimatter universe in existence.[21]
The New 52
Main article: New 52
At the vulnerable moment of a reality-altering Flashpoint caused by The Flash, Pandora and Dr. Manhattan altered the timeline of Earth-0. Manhattan stole ten years from the timeline as an experiment pushed on by the unconscious will of the Great Darkness; Pandora's efforts resulted in a merging of three disparate universes; the DC Universe, the Wildstorm Universe, and the Vertigo Universe, the latter of which was comprised of those characters who began their existence within the mainstream DCU, but continued on under the Vertigo imprint beginning in April 1993. Other Vertigo properties remain disconnected from this multiverse. Their efforts echoed out into the rest of the multiverse, touching many worlds, possibly as a result of Earth-0's status as both the core of the Multiverse and its connection to the Metaverse.
This new model of creation involves multiple incarnations of the Multiverse suspended within a "Multi-Multiverse",[22] with individual Multiverses existing as 'bubble' sets of grouped universes such as the local 52,[23] with mention of the destroyed "Multiverse-2" by the Empty Hand. The 'local' Multiverse is constructed on a central axis of the House of Heroes, former headquarters of the Monitors rotating through the Fifth Dimension, now headquarters of the team Justice Incarnate, and the Rock of Eternity, connected to the cornerstone Earths 0 and 33, aka Prime Earth and Earth Prime. The Orrery is structured that the position of universes within it relative to certain realms in the Sphere of the Gods denote aspects of their nature: those closer to New Genesis are often kinder and nobler, those close to Apokolips often far darker, while the proximity to the realms of Dream or Nightmare denote Order and Chaos, respectively. Additionally, each Earth is parallel to another Earth; in at least one instance with Earths 20 and 40, these parallel Earths have been seen to phase into a state of being capable of interaction.
The universes are capable of communicating with each other through comic books, chronicles of the adventures of the heroes of the universes being published on various different worlds, similarly to the relationship displayed between the pre-Crisis Earth-Two and Earth-One, and Earth-One with Earth-Prime. These publications include DC Comics (representing multiple Earths), Quantum Comics (Earth 4), Keystone Comics (Earth 5), Essential Major Comics (Earth 7), Major Comics (Earth 8), Spire Comics (Earth 34), Blue Stamp, and Victory Comics. Earths 14, 24, 25, 27, 28, 46 and 49 were unknown worlds at first, created by an Inner Chamber of 7 Monitor Magi for an as-yet-unknown purpose, though each had their inhabitants revealed over time.[24]
Convergence
Brainiac observed and pulled cities from threads of worlds preserved in Hypertime, many of which belonged to the Pre-Crisis multiverse.[25][26] Brainiac reveals that the multiverse is unstable and will again collapse into one universe unless the first Crisis is changed. Brainiac sends Superman, Supergirl, the Flash and Parallax back with the promise that if they prevent the collapse of the original multiverse "everything will reset and return to what it was before I brought you all here" (sic). They succeed but Brainiac comments that "each world has evolved but they all still exist."
Based on Brainiac's (and John King's "Post-Convergence, every character that ever existed, in DC Canon, is now available to us.")[4] comments and other events there must be at least five multiverses: the original Pre-Crisis multiverse, Hypertime, 52 Multiverse, The New 52 Multiverse and the "evolved" Pre-Crisis multiverse. However, it was later revealed that the pre-Crisis multiverse had, in fact, not been restored, and instead remained as a desolate carcass.
Rebirth
After Convergence, those who helped Brainiac during Crisis on Infinite Earths went their separate ways, with both Parallax and Superman (with his pregnant wife, Lois) finding their way to Prime Earth. Years after Lois gives birth to their son, Jonathan Samuel Kent, New Earth Superman takes over the mantle of the original Prime Earth Superman after he died, leading to confrontations with a mysterious man named Mister Oz as well as Superman exploring his new world while he helps Lois hide her real identity. When the Prime Earth Lois dies after a short stint as Superwoman, New Earth Lois takes her place while Jon's identity is still kept a secret.
In the aftermath of the Darkseid War, Owlman took the Mobius Chair for himself and, along with Metron, tapped into its power to discover the secrets of the universe, including the existence of an omnipotent God from another universe that had previously altered the universe during the Flashpoint: however, the Super-God prevented them from sharing this knowledge by burning them to ashes.
Meanwhile, Flash (Wally West) reappeared on Prime Earth from deep within the Speed Force, revealing that the Flashpoint incident caused by Barry Allen was not the sole reason for the changes to Earth-0, laying bare some of the nature of the changes that been made by the quantum being; Wally himself began forgetting New Earth, just as Barry had begun to do post-Flashpoint, and "became" a new iteration of himself, inheriting this new reality's history; his appearance on Prime Earth also began triggering certain people close to him to regain memories of the erased timeline. At the same time, a mysterious button fell to the Batcave and was discovered by Batman.
Some time later, the Reverse-Flash began remembering the previous timeline and came to the Batcave, trying to murder Batman in return for being murdered by an alternate Batman during the Flashpoint. After noticing the mysterious button, the evil speedster wanted to discover its origins but was burned to ashes by the blue light of "God": Flash and Batman adventured into the Hypertime to discover whoever murdered him, briefly returning to the Flashpoint Timeline before it was erased from existence; unbeknownst to them, Batman (Thomas Wayne) was the only survivor of the Flashpoint, being saved by the Reverse-Flash to punish him for his previous death.
During the invasion of the Dark Multiverse, it was revealed that there are more than 52 Earths in the "local" Multiverse, with a 53rd Earth being home to a group of primate counterparts of Earth 0's superheroes.[27][28] In addition, a new version of Earth-ABC also exists as a parallel universe, the mysterious and previously unexplored Earth 25.[29]; at some point in time after its destruction at the hands of the Anti-Monitor, the Crime Syndicate and their home world were also resurrected as the Multiverse healed Earth 3 by itself.[30]
Mysteriously, Imra Ardeen/Saturn Girl appeared on Earth 0 but was put in Arkham Asylum as a patient with mental disorders as showed knowledge of events to come and has an unknown agenda.
The Doom Patrol enlisted the help of Batman's Justice League of America, Wonder Woman, and New Earth Superman in fighting an evil Multiversal conglomerate, known as Retconn, that wanted to "sell" reality for profit. This conflict ended with minor reality changes, affecting mostly the Doom Patrol, Loma Shade, Calvin Carson, and Gotham City's vigilante, Mother Panic (Violet Page).
Shortly thereafter, a series of events leads to New Earth Lois & Clark to merge with their Prime Earth counterparts. The mysterious Mister Oz, who revealed to be Jor-El himself that was saved for nefarious reasons by the "Super-God", explained that this merging caused the New Earth and Prime Earth realities to become a new universe, which was both familiar and new, as the events from both realities happened in the new timeline.[31]
After Adrien Veidt failed to stop a nuclear war on his Earth, he orchestrated a plan in order discover the whereabouts of Doctor Manhattan, who was the supreme entity that many years before had altered the reality turning New Earth into Prime Earth, by making him confront this alternate Earth's most famous hero, Superman.
As Doctor Manhattan finally met Superman, he revealed to him the truth behind every changes in reality: after coming to his world, he experimented on the universe by causing the death of Alan Scott, preventing him from becoming the first Green Lantern of Earth so that the Justice Society never assembled and, as a direct consequence, Clark was not inspired by these early heroes into becoming Superboy and saving his parents from dying into their fatal car crash; because of Superboy's absence, the Legion of Super-Heroes was never inspired by the young Kryptonian hero and never formed in the future.
Despite these revelations, Clark chose to save Manhattan from being attacked during a massive metahuman clash, finally inspiring the Super-God to use his powers for good. The almighty being undid his changes to Prime Earth, resulting in the return of the Justice Society of America (and Wonder Woman's early involvement with them), Clark Kent's early days as Superboy, Clark's parents' lives, and the Legion of Super-Heroes, with the original Saturn Girl vanishing before returning as a newer version of herself and questioning Clark finally about their previous meetings, also insinuating she retained some if not all of her previous memories.
At the very end of his experiment, Doctor Manhattan discovered that the Prime Universe was a sentient universe, he referred to as the Metaverse, which shapes itself (and the Multiverse around it) each time Superman appears on Earth: reality shifts forward, preserving every era of Superman by creating a "copy" of the universe, so that a Superman will always appear on Earth until the end of the Time. Manhattan then returned to his universe, where he gave his life to create his "successor" who he named Clark in Superman's honor, but not before trying to fix the various cracks in the Multiverse with his Connective Energy. Not long after his disappearance, Wally West absorbed his remaining power from the Mobius Chair, becoming an almighty entity like Doctor Manhattan and deciding to finish his "predecessor"'s job.[32]
In the wake of the Justice League's defeat against Perpetua's army, the Quintessence granted the heroes another chance, making them harness Doctor Manhattan's last remnants of energy to empower themselves enough to defeat the evil hand. Now aided by the Batman who Laughs, who convinced her to erase Lex Luthor's Apex powers after the Dark Batman made her aware of the incoming last stand and proposed her to be enhanced by Crisis Energies from the Dark Multiverse worlds, Perpetua confronted the heroes and finally defeated them, allowing Earth 0 to be invaded by Dark Multiverse forces and beginning the destruction of the Multiverse in order to recreate it according to her belief.[33]
The overrun Earth 0 was reshaped by Perpetua, which mixed some elements of its original form to create a new world for the Dark Multiverse army. Gotham City and the west coast irradiated from Captain Atom exploding, were turned into their own continents. Metropolis became part of an advanced dystopian continent, while rest of the United States was turned into an hellish landscape due to the Batmage opening the door to Hell. Other worlds and realms were also deposited on Earth.[34]
Later on, Wonder Woman, Batman, and a group of heroes began a rebellion against the Dark Multiverse forces that ended with the Batman who Laughs's death[33]: while the heroes moved on with their plan to restore the universe, freeing Superman and other Earths' heroes from their prison on MegaApokolips and split up in various groups, each one tasked with its mission to complete. At the same time, the Dark Knights resurrected the evil Batman, transplanting his brain into the body of the Batmanhattan, becoming an almighty creature known as Darkest Knight.[35]
The Green Lanterns adventured into the Multiverse to search for survivors of the lost universes and destroy the universal tuning forks that powered up Perpetua, on the last surviving realities (Earth 3, Earth 10, Earth 29, Earth 43 and Earth 50) which already matched the Mother of the Multiverse's ideas, so they had sided with her. With the help of the last standing Justice Incarnate's forces and the twisted Owlman, the heroes managed to tear down the towers, weakening Perpetua and escaping into the Bleed inside the Carrier.[36]
Barry Allen and other speedsters ran away with Wally West, which was imbued with Doctor Manhattan's powers, to hide him from the Darkest Knight who wanted to absorb that power and get the Mobius Chair in order to possess enough power to fullfill his secret plan to overthrow Perpetua's dominion. Backed by the Lightning Knights, the Dark Batman chased the heroes who, in the end, escaped from him and reached the Mobius Chair.[37]
The Trinity's group, which was also composed of Harley Quinn, Swamp Thing and the undead Jonah Hex, planned to travel into the Dark Multiverse to sever Perpetua's link to the Crisis Energy from three Dark worlds where the first Crisis, Infinite Crisis and the Final Crisis were eternally happening. After the incursion of the Robin King who made the group split, each member of the Trinity reach a Crisis world which was altered to have Anti-Monitor, Superboy-Prime and Darkseid win the Crisis: Wonder Woman managed to convince Prime to redirect the Crisis energies into the Mobius Chair, believing it was powering up the Flash.[38]
It was revealed that the Darkest Knight had altered to redirect the energy of the Chair into himself so the Crisis Energies made him strong enough to deal the final blow to the Multiverse. At the End of Time, the Linear Men witnessed the Hypertime being torn apart so that every possible timeline faded away; the destruction of the Multiverse even echoed into the Bleed and the Sphere of the Gods. The Darkest Knight declared the birth of the "Last 52 Multiverse".[39]
The near-ending of the Multiverse attracted the Chronicler, an herald of the Source which came from the Overvoid to record the history of the Multiverse and its last moments, witnessing himself the final battle between Perpetua and the Darkest Knight.[40]
While the two powerful Gods battled each other, the Earth 0's heroes faced the Robin King who managed to kill some heroes[41] and gained the upper hand even with the Trinity but, before he could kill them all, he was called out by his Master and left them to the Castle Bat. The Dark Knight became a giant version of Batman but was stripped of his soul by the Legion of Doom's spaceship using Coluan technology and killed by Harley Quinn.[42]
Lex Luthor offered to Wonder Woman the chance of defeating once and for all the Darkest Knight, using the Death Metal, shards of Element X that the Monitor hid in various planes of existence and Lobo previously retrieved,[43] and a truth machine in the Forge of Worlds into the Dark Multiverse which could unknots the timeline and restore everyone's memories of all the forgotten events to gather enough Anti-Crisis energy to finally destroy the Darkest Knight.
The Darkest Knight sensed what his enemies were up to and assembled an army, composed by the Last 52 Multiverse villains and the remains of the Dark Multiverse's forces, and sent them to Earth 0 to fight its resistance which unified every hero, villain, dead people, common citizens and survivors of other realities for the last battle.[42]
Wonder Woman and an army of Lobo's clones adventured into the Dark Multiverse where Lobo fell prey to its shadows so Diana reached alone the World Forge where she met Darkseid that tried to discourage her from trying to change the history. Diana understood that only truth could save them all so she bound herself to her lasso and, using the energies of the Forge, she managed to alter the reality and restore every memory of past events, greatly empowering herself, much to Darkseid's surprise.[44]
In the meantime, the Darkest Knight managed to overpower Perpetua and sealed her in the remains of the Source Wall and, then, he destroyed them, ultimately killing the Goddess once and for all.[44] Immediately afterwards, the God returned to Earth 0 where the final battle had already begun. Superboy-Prime was convinced into fight him and, despite being weaker than the Darkest Knight, his reality-altering punches managed to weaken him and severely destabilize the Last 52 Multiverse, before dying from his wounds: as a side-effect of their clash, Prime's home reality, Earth-Prime, was restored into the Multiverse and his existence preserved.[45]
Wonder Woman returned to the Earth to kill the Darkest Knight but, even with her new found powers, she could not overpower the Dark God who brought her back to the Creation, just before the Hand created the Multiverse, revealing her that he was going to kill her and the other Hands. He made her an offer to save her and all of her friends if she sided with him and let him kill the Hands: Diana refused, believing in her and his friends, and punched him to the End of Time. There, the Darkest Knight finally revealed her that the Hands were waiting for the battle to end to finally destroy the Multiverse in order to punish it for having been twisted and derailed from its original purpose, so she had, now, to choose how his Multiverse would end.
In the end, Diana chose to let the Darkest Knight burn and die in the Final Sun and awaited for the Hands to ultimately destroy the Multiverse. However, one of them, taking the appearance of her Earth-Two counterpart, told her the Hands admired her ultimate sacrifice in order to save them and rewarded her by restoring the Multiverse, with all the events that ever happened, and letting her ascend to an Higher Plane.[46]
Infinite Frontier
In the aftermath of the last Crisis and the Hands' saving of the reality, Earth 0 was restored to its Pre-Metalverse state and many dead people (such as Arsenal) were brought back to life. On the dark side of the Moon, the heroes, along with some villains, created a new spaceship, the Totality, to control the balance of justice and doom and prevent any other crisis like the one they survived.
According to Hawkgirl, the other Orrery's realities were restored to existence and, as Hypertime was also healed along with every alternate timeline, Earth 0's residents are now aware of the Multiverse; additonally, they had their memories restored of events that had previously been removed from the timeline by various crisis. Doctor Manhattan's manipulations to the timeline were undone, and Earth-0's past solidified for the first time in years.
Mister Terrific also discovered that Earth 0 was no more the center of the Multiverse which now had two new centers: one dubbed the Elseworld and the other dubbed Earth Omega. Lex Luthor stated that the Dark Multiverse was still existing under the shadow of the Multiverse which was now composed by new realities. Furthermore, he affirmed that, along with the current Multiverse, each past iteration of the Multiverse was brought back to create a web of multiverses, a little-scaled omniverse of their own into the greater Omniverse, which Wally West also referred to as the Infinite Frontier.[46]
As the Hands promised her, Wonder Woman was being offered by the Quintessence to join their Circle but she refused the proposal, believing that a new "crisis" would eventually come for the Multiverse. As she suspected, Darkseid, who was seemingly imprisoned by the Quintessence on Earth Omega, escaped his prison and murdered all of them and the Spectre, stating to be the End as he was merged with all of his previous incarnations and, as a con sequence, he was now stronger than ever.[47] The Ultimate being enlisted the help of many Multiverse residents, including the Psycho-Pirate, Injustice Incarnate and Earth 0 Director Bones, who desired to keep the infinite realities separated, tricking them into keeping away his enemies and bringing him the Omega Lantern.
However, after being exposed as the evil mastermind behind the kidnapping of the Justice Society and Barry Allen, the heroes of the Multiverse reached Earth Omega where they managed to stop his evil plans by destroying the machine that a possessed Flash was powering up in order to control the Multiverse. Darkseid sent everyone to their home universes and hid himself along with Earth Omega.
It was eventually revealed that the Omega Lantern was just a fragment of the Great Darkness, which had been slumbering since the first Crisis. Meanwhile, Barry Allen accidentally ended up on the Multiverse-2 where the Pre-Crisis Pariah was hiding: after telling Barry that he was now aware of how to save the Multiverse, Pariah imprisoned Flash into a brand new universe, Earth-Flash.1, where the Scarlet Speedster began living a perfect life.[48]
Darkseid, for all his machinations, found himself manipulated as part of a larger scheme, inadverdantly bringing a rift in the multiverse into the hands of the Empty Hand, who used it to complete the Oblivion Machine, a device that would allow the Great Darkness to re-enter the Multiverse. The Darkness then revealed to Darkseid his true nature; while the Empty Hand was the outstretched, open right hand of darkness, Darkseid was the left, the closed unknowing fist. In turn, the Great Darkness seized control of Darkseid, adding him to the ranks of its Dark Army under the command of Pariah.[49]
Together, Justice Incarnate and the Justice League of Earth 0 confronted Pariah and his Dark Army in Multiverse-2. The heroes prevented the Darkness from entering the Multiverse but Pariah trapped each of them in their own paradise worlds, worlds without a Justice League, except for Black Adam. Adam managed to escape back to Earth 0, and told the remaining heroes that the Justice League were dead, as they had appeared to be disintegrated when Pariah sent them into the so-called paradise worlds.
Dark Crisis
The Darkness made contact with Deathstroke on Earth-0, and through him, puppeteered the newest iteration of the Secret Society of Super-Villains and formed them into an army. Under his command, doomsday cults and minor supervillains around the world all launched attacks at once in the League's absence, so Jon Kent formed a new team to deal with them and inspire the frightened populace.
In space, Hal Jordan and Jo Mullein rallied the entire Green Lantern Corps for the fight against the Dark Army. They went to Ryut, the headquarters of the Black Lantern Corps; and Hal, Jo and Kyle Rayner entered the Black Lantern Central Power Battery, telling the others to destroy it if they did not return. They passed through the Lantern and emerged in Multiverse-2, where they found Pariah and the pocket dimensions he had imprisoned the Justice League in. Hal entered John Stewart's paradise world while Jo and Kyle kept Pariah occupied.
Back on Earth, the combined forces of the Justice League, Justice Society, Batman Family and Titans worked to hold the world together. Deathstroke and his army seemed to withdraw, but Mister Terrific detected dark energy at the edge of the Multiverse. Alan Scott took Jon Kent, Nightwing and Yara Flor to meet with Justice League Dark, and the two Swamp Things told them that an elemental force like the Darkness would likely not be bothered to micromanage supervillains and suggested that the Great Darkness had been corrupted by something else. They went on an expedition into the Starheart to investigate the Darkness, where they found Pariah's antimatter chamber from the Crisis on Infinite Earths and discovered that Pariah had corrupted the Darkness rather than the other way around as they had assumed.
Eventually, the Justice League broke free of the paradise worlds and confronted Pariah, but his powers pulled him to Earth 0, which had descended into Crisis.
Pariah told the League that their lives were now tied to the paradise worlds, and if they attempted to follow him they would cease to exist. Despite this Green Arrow, who was particularly vulnerable as he had been mortally wounded in the initial fight with Pariah and only saved by being put in a paradise world, told them that it was worth the risk to save the world. Barry and Hal combined their powers to teleport the League back to Earth 0, although Oliver did not arrive with them.
Despite the heroes' best efforts, Pariah was able to use his paradise worlds to create a new infinite Multiverse to replace the one lost in the first Crisis. Meanwhile, Deathstroke spread the Darkness to all the villains of Earth 0, strengthening its hold over the Multiverse. Most of the heroes answered Nightwing's call to gather at the Hall of Justice, to prepare for a climactic battle against Deathstroke and his forces.
Damian Wayne realised the heroes could not win through valour alone and took a small team of heroes, including Doctor Light, into the Multiverse to try and find the source of the chains of darkness controlling the Dark Army and take control of them himself. The trail eventually lead to the House of Heroes where they were attacked by Justice League Incarnate, who had also been possessed by the Darkness. Doctor Light dove into the Orrery of Worlds to prevent them breaching it and was able to make connection with The Light, fully realising her powers. This allowed her to destroy the chains of darkness controlling Justice Incarnate. The two teams returned to Earth 0 to join the fight.
Jace Fox helped Mister Terrific modify the antimatter chamber to turn Pariah's own powers against him, sending him into his own paradise world. Despite this, and the return of the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps, the possessed villains kept fighting and Pariah's new Multiverse continued to spread through the Orrery of Worlds. The corrupted Darkness transferred to Deathstroke, who announced he would kill them all, even if it destroyed the Multiverse.
Pariah's scheme had centered around the destruction of Earth-0, sacrificing the Orrery of Worlds in trade for the rebirth of the Infinite Multiverse. Without the destruction of the Orrery, Pariah's new Multiverse was unstable as it clashed with what preceded it. Luckily, the collective Flash family of Earth-0 was able to combine their immense speed with the newly revealed power possessed by Doctor Light, forging permanent bonds between the Orrery and the new, infinite multiverse. Back on Earth, Black Adam was able to sever the Darkness' connection to Deathstroke by speaking his own name, sharing a fraction of his power with every being on the field of battle.
In the aftermath of the Dark Crisis, its aftereffects led to the return of the Anti-Monitor, who once again attempted to destroy it, but he was foiled by Barry Allen, Kid Flash and a team of Multiversal heroes.
Known Earths
Main article: Multiverse/List of Universes
Current Multiversal Structure
The Orrery of Worlds
On the border of the Orrery of Worlds containing the universes, which is actually the Speed Force Wall, there are several other realms, at least half of which are currently unknown. Those known include:
- Wonderworld: Former home to a host of godlike superheroes, such as Adam One, Nightmare, the Glimmer and the Mote, banded together as the Theocracy to defend reality. Now an abandoned cosmic graveyard in the wake of the attack of the Old God war machine Mageddon.
- Blood Moon: Formed by Brainiac opposite Wonderworld, home to cities from various realities altered or destroyed in the wake of the various Crisis events. Following the events of Convergence, this world was moved into the universe of Earth 2 by Telos to replace its shattered Earth until Earth 2 was itself recreated, leaving the status of both the world and the source dimension unknown.
- Kwyzz: Radio universe embedded in the Speed Force Wall formed as one of the Monitor Bleed Siphons punches through Skyland in the Sphere of Gods to enter the Orrery, home of the super-fast champion Krakkl.
Going beyond the Speed Force Wall there are places to be explored, such as:
- Heroverse: The location where the potential for all existing and non-existing superheroes resides.
The Antimatter Universe
The Antimatter Universe was originally created by Perpetua in order to use it as a border between the Multiverse and the greater Omniverse; it was meant to be guarded by her son, Mobius, the Anti-Monitor. After Perpetua was defeated by the Cosmic Raptor and the Multiverse was reconfigured into its Original iteration, the Antimatter Universe was created when a Maltusian scientist named Krona performed an experiment in an effort to see the origins of the universe. His experiment caused a disruption in the mechanisms involved in the Big Bang, resulting in a universe being created that was the opposite of the Pre-Crisis universe.
After the multiverse had temporarily been condensed to one Earth post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Antimatter Universe was revealed to still exist. This began a rivalry between the Justice League of America and the "Earth 2" Crime Syndicate of Amerika, who had replaced their traditional Earth 3/Three counterparts.
It was believed this universe had been destroyed post-Infinite Crisis but, in the aftermath of many alterations to the Multiverse, it was revealed it, or some version of it, was still in existence: Controller Mu extracted the heart of a mysterious Yellow Lantern, seemingly a counterpart to Hal Jordan, who the Controller called "The Weaponeer"[50] (perhaps a callback to the Weaponers of the Antimatter planet Qward, who also had ties to Yellow Lantern Sinestro). The Controller revealed this mysterious Lantern's heart would be key to obtaining the "Anti-Matter Lantern".
Alternate Realms and Planes of Existence
Sphere of the Gods
Main article: Sphere of the Gods
It is a metaphysical reality, just outside the physical Orrery of Worlds, that is made of the scrapes of creation which are the primordial force known as Magic;[51] it is in fact the power source of all the magic users in the Multiverse.[52] It is also home to eight planes of existence, many of which are connected to certain Earths in the Orrery, that include:
- Dream: also known as the Dreaming, it is the domain of the dream-king Morpheus (and later Daniel Hall) of the Endless; it also hosts several realms including the Gemworld and Elfhame and it is the home of Oberon and Titania, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, as well as the Halls of the Endless.
- Nightmare: Reverse side of Dream, home to the Corinthian, the magical dimension known as the Land of the Nightshades and the Boogeyman, amongst other haunts.
- Heaven: otherwise known as the Silver City, it is the residence of The Presence and the Angels. It also home to the four Guardian Angel hosts of the Pax Dei (Bull, Eagle, Lion and Adam), as well as the Spectre. It is connected to Earths 30 and 49.
- Hell: the home dimension of Demons and Djinns, as well as the likes of Neron. It also hosts some magical dimensions including Azarath and, more recently, the displaced Rock of Eternity.[53] It is connected to Earths 24 and 43.
- Skyland: The plane of existence of the Divine Pantheons, including the Olympian gods, as well as the Norse, Aztec-Mayan and Egyptian gods; each pantheon lives in his own dimension such as Mount Olympus or Asgard. It is connected to Earths 11 and 25.
- Underworld: Reverse side of Skyland, it is the plane of existence which hosts the different lands of dead of every culture, including Hades, Helheim and the Kryptonian Phantom Zone. It is connected to Earths 31 and 46.
- New Genesis: The shining home of the magnificent New Gods, such as Orion, Highfather and Lightray. It is connected to Earth 51.
- Apokolips: Reverse side of New Genesis, a fiery globe enslaved by the tyrant deity Darkseid and his acolytes. It is connected to Earth 6.
- Limbo: Home of heroes lost from the Multiverse, waiting to fade back into the immensity of the Overvoid. Limbo serves as the border between the Sphere of the Gods and the Monitor Sphere.
Monitor Sphere
Beyond either the Orrery or the Sphere of the Gods, former home of the Monitors, abandoned in the wake of the Final Crisis. The Source Wall on the border of the Monitor Sphere is the border between the Multiverse and the massive cosmic consciousness known as the Overvoid.
Overvoid
Main article: Overvoid
An inconceivably massive cosmic consciousness, the infinite, timeless white void within which the Multiverse floats, also known as Monitor-Mind. Upon discovering the existence of Creation within itself, the Overvoid extended a probe into the Multiverse, which upon reporting back the concept of events, irreparably altered the Overvoid's awareness. The probe, having been split in two, withdrew and left behind as a result of the contact was a titanic entity in the shape of one of the inhabitants of the Orrery; the Overvoid itself remains implacable, though the presence of the giant would infect its mind with perpetual questions, and thereby the concept of 'story'.
The Dark Multiverse
Main article: Dark Multiverse
The Dark Multiverse is thought to be composed of dark energy and dark matter which is neither matter nor anti-matter.[54] It's believed to be far vaster and older then the 52 multiverse which Prime Earth Barry Allen believed was all there was, somehow enclosing it in its mass[55] and made up of the fantasties and fears of its inhabitants.[56]
In the vastity of the Dark Multiverse, there are also known to exist various Earths without an official designation which are not only based on hopes and fears of the Multiverse's residents but they are even born from past events from all of the Multiverse's history.[57][58][59][60]
The Last 52 Multiverse
Main article: The Last 52 Multiverse
The Last 52 Multiverse was a set of 52 dark realities which were created by The Darkest Knight after he was supercharged, through the Mobius Chair, with Crisis Energies from the Dark Multiverse worlds where the three major crisis were always happening. This immense power made him able to conjur his own Dark Multiverse-inspired realities which were inhabited by more obscure version of Prime Earth characters.
As he was dealing with the Mother of the Multiverse, Perpetua, he let his worlds grow enough in order to recruit from them an army which could face the Earth 0's resistance who gathered on the Metalverse to stand against him.
The Last 52 villains clashed against the resistence before Their master could join them on the battlefield. Then, Superboy-Prime confronted the Darkest Knight and, despite being a lot weaker than Him, the Kryptonian was able to destabilize the very core of the Last 52 Multiverse by hitting the Darkest Knight with his reality-altering punches as he was the very source of its existence.
Later, as the Darkest Knight faced a Forge of Worlds-empowered Wonder Woman through the Timestream, the Last 52 Multiverse was ultimately destroyed when the Amazonian hero managed to kill the Dark God by punching him into the Last Sun at the End of Time.[46]
Notes
- DC Pre-Crisis multiverse didn't really denote the difference between parallel universe and a divergent timeline and in some cases confused the two. For example, Earth-Thirty-Two had Guardians that resided on the planet Oa[67]...a planet that was unique to the Earth-One reality meaning that it had to be a divergent timeline but Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium lists it as a parallel universe. The same thing is true of Earth-AD where Superman #295 itself says possible it is a possible future for Earth-One while Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium references the work saying it was revealed as a "parallel universe".
- It is never stated just how divergent the timelines of the various Earths of the 52 and new 52 multiverse are. As a result there is nothing that indicates there can't be a different timeline of Earth 3 that is effectively identical to Earth-Three.
- In fact, at the end of Convergence #8 Brainiac states "Each world has evolved, but they all exist. But there were far more than 52 Pre-Crisis realities so for Brainiac's many of those realities have to be divergent timelines of the 52 main Earths."
- The properties of matter, laws of physics, and principles of chemistry are very different in the various parallel universes comprising the Multiverse. For example:
- Elements such as Absorbium, Amnesium, Batmanium (Element 206), Illium 349, Kryptylium, Staggium, Supermanium, Trolium, Vaxxium, Xium and Zuunium exist on Earth-One and New Earth, while seemingly not existing on Earth-Two.
- Elements such as Amazonium, Kryptonite and Nth Metal exist on Earth-One, and in several "nearby" parallel universes, such as Earth-Two and Prime Earth, while seemingly not existing on others, such as Earth-S and the Quality Universe.
- Elements such as Marvelium, Protium, Shazamium and Sivanium exist on Earth-S, while seemingly not existing on other parallel worlds. A radioactive isotope of Sivanium also exists.
- The element Zonium is only known to exist in the Quality Universe.
- Element X exists in the Dark Multiverse, the Sphere of the Gods, New Earth and Prime Earth.
- The numbers assigned to various "Earths" are not necessarily arbitrary. Many realities, especially those originally named in Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium, were dubbed with the issue number in which that "Earth" first appeared. For example, Earth-Fifteen debuted in Justice League of America #15, and Earth-423 debuted in a storyline that began in Superman #423.
See Also
Links and References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Multiversity Guidebook #1
- ↑ 52 (Volume 1)
- ↑ "Dan DiDio explained that there are 52 earths, and then alternate dimensions within each universe, as well as alternate timelines and microverses within each. "Baltimore Comic-Con 07: DC Nation Panel Report". Newsarama. 2007-09-08. Internet Archive
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Burlingame, Russ (27 May 2015). "Decoding Convergence With Jeff King: The Finale". ComicBook.com
- ↑ Justice League (Volume 4) #22
- ↑ Dark Nights: Metal #4
- ↑ Infinite Crisis #2
- ↑ The Flash #123
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Justice League of America #123
- ↑ Crisis on Infinite Earths #10
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Crisis on Infinite Earths #11
- ↑ Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale
- ↑ Superboy (Volume 4) #61
- ↑ The Kingdom #2
- ↑ Justice League: Another Nail #2
- ↑ Justice League: Another Nail #3
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Infinite Crisis #5
- ↑ Infinite Crisis #6
- ↑ 52 #52
- ↑ Countdown #40
- ↑ Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1
- ↑ https://www.newsarama.com/25243-morrison-reveals-weird-stories-for-batman-black-white-and-multiversity-too.html
- ↑ https://www.comicbookresources.com/article/sdcc-morrison-dc-announce-multiversity-too-batman-black-white-ogns
- ↑ Superman (Volume 4) #15
- ↑ Convergence #0
- ↑ Convergence #8
- ↑ Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Metal #6
- ↑ The Terrifics #7
- ↑ Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #1
- ↑ Action Comics #976
- ↑ Doomsday Clock #12
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Dark Nights: Death Metal #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal #2
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Multiverse's End #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Speed Metal #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Trinity Crisis #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal #4
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Rise of the New God #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Robin King #1
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Dark Nights: Death Metal #5
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Infinite Hour Exxxtreme! #1
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 Dark Nights: Death Metal #6
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal The Secret Origin #1
- ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 Dark Nights: Death Metal #7
- ↑ Infinite Frontier #0
- ↑ Infinite Frontier #6
- ↑ Justice League Incarnate #5
- ↑ The Green Lantern #1
- ↑ Doomsday Clock #9
- ↑ Justice League Dark and Wonder Woman: The Witching Hour #1
- ↑ Shazam! (Volume 4) #1
- ↑ Dark Nights: Metal #1
- ↑ "SCOTT SNYDER TALKS DARK NIGHTS: METAL, THE END OF ALL-STAR BATMAN, AND MORE"
- ↑ "Scott Snyder Reveals The Secret of the Dark Multiverse"
- ↑ Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1
- ↑ Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Infinite Crisis #1
- ↑ Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Flashpoint #1
- ↑ Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights Metal #1
- ↑ Lucifer #49
- ↑ Lucifer #69
- ↑ Lucifer #75
- ↑ Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Batman: Hush #1
- ↑ The Flash #750
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal Rise of the New God #1
- ↑ DC Challenge (Volume 1)